- cross-posted to:
- germany
- cross-posted to:
- germany
Edited later to add:
The original press release seems to be gone now, but here is what is claimed to be the revised release, and an article on the same topic.
https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/polizei-dortmund-greta-gewaltbereit-100.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/german-politician-calls-greta-thunberg-102611513.html
As a German: Our government, as an apology, is letting the Israeli government do a genocide of their own. You were so close, and then you took the anti-semitic turn by referring to “the jews” :(
However, also as a German: While I do absolutely wish Israel was forced to stop the atrocities they commit, and pay reparations, I believe that - given our specific history with the state of Israel and what Germans did to the Jewish population of Europe just ~80 years ago, there are plenty of states in the world that are better candidates to take an aggressive political stance towards Israel, before Germany does.
Some of us are still very much committed to absolutely defending the absolute right of Israel to exist as a state, while also (albeit sadly less of us) there are people who at the same time see the war crimes committed by the Israeli army and secret services against civilian populations of Gaza & Lebanon.
But the German government can not just take the side of Palestinians here, not because the current Israeli administration does not belong in jail, but because there are those who will - should the pendulum swing to the other side again - ask for revenge / war on Israel / commit crimes against Israeli civilians. Or, as we already see, use the violence in the middle east to justify hate crimes against Israelis or Jewish people in other countries.
Those who do the killing are evil on both sides, and those who do the suffering and dying are mostly not the same group of people - neither in Israel, nor in Gaza or Lebanon.
Long story short - Germany is stuck between a rock and a hard place in this, and it is MUCH easier for virtually any other country in the world to speak on behalf of the Palestinians. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speak out, but I can understand why German politicians are very carefully weighing their options on this.
The concern is legitimate, but it falls into the same “never again - to us” pit Israel fell into. Another potential framing one could take of the issue - one I feel is more helpful - would go something like: 80 years ago, the world got together to help save Germany from itself, and it’s time to return the favor, hopefully before it gets completely out of hand like last time.
It’d be a good take on this, but there are still too many people in the world that fall for hypocrisy when one side is lying through their teeth and the other is calling out the bullshit and saying things as they are. Too many people will side with the liars who would claim that Israel is acting in self-defense and fighting “terrorists”.
Edit: I had to reword a few sentences (previous and next), because it seemed as if I was talking about liars on the one hand, and nazi parties on the other, as if they weren’t one and the same - that is absolutely not what I meant, I just reworded too much and then read it myself and thought “oh damn”.
I admit that the higher risk in Germany right now is the anti-“brown people”, putin-loving piece of shit nazi party (AfD, in case you were wondering, but CDU/CSU comes close), and not any anti-semitic party. So I guess calling out Israeli war crimes wouldn’t come with an immediate risk of a rise in anti-semitism.
I guess that’s also the problem here. Palestinians are seen as “brown people” and the post 2001 hate-filled news escalation has deepened the deeply ingrained racism in many parts of European societies. So among our political parties (and I don’t see a difference from most European countries), none is really vocal about the crimes against humanity being committed in Gaza and Lebanon. And previously Syria. And Iraq. And Afghanistan. And before that Iran. Notice a pattern?
Israel doesn’t have a right to exist. Religion based countries will always resort to fighting anyone that doesn’t conform to their flavor of religion.